Founded in 2005, the Silmarillion Writers' Guild exists for discussions of and creative fanworks based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion and related texts. We are a positive-focused and open-minded space that welcomes fans from all over the world and with all levels of experience with Tolkien's works. Whether you are picking up Tolkien's books for the first time or have been a fan for decades, we welcome you to join us!
New Challenge: Bollywood This month's challenge offers songs, films, and tropes from Bollywood, the world's largest film industry based out of India, as prompts for fanworks.
Cultus Dispatches: Fandom Chocolate … or Authors Love Comments Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data provides insight into how comments benefit authors and which authors are most impacted by a lack of comments, with a digression on authors' perspectives one-click feedback like kudos.
A Sense of History: Passing Ships As Tolkien's characters in various texts gaze out to the sea, what do they see? What is brought by the ships coming out of the West?
Beta-Reader List Now Available The beta-reader list and profiles have been moved into our new system and are available again.
Nimruzimir, a natural philosopher recently out of his apprenticeship, hardly considers himself very important to anyone, least of all his colleagues. When his strange, prophetic fits bring him to the attention of the High Priest, however, he may find that his existence is less superfluous than…
This is my new poetical attempt to add my own interpretation to Tolkien's Cosmology as to Eru's Creation and the Valar's minds and behind-the-scene providence reasons and mechanisms.. I often review Eä as part of our own world, just in another dimension, this is why I have always seriously…
Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data shows that authors view comments as driving their motivation to create fanfiction. However, perception of comments by authors is part of a larger shift in fandom around how and how often fans interact with each other.
The arrival and departure of ships across the Great Sea carries mythic significance for the peoples of Middle-earth. The image of ships crossing out of and back into a mysterious West appears as well in Beowulf and is alluded to in Tolkien's tower analogy in his lecture "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," where the tower allows those who climb it to observe the passage of the ships.
Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data shows that while most authors self-identify as taking their craft seriously, a growing subset of authors may be pushing that norm.
He and Diamond were visiting, though Pippin had been disappearing every afternoon, and taking Frodo and Elanor and most other lads and lasses in the neighborhood with him—though why they couldn’t use Pippin’s own pony, Sam couldn’t imagine.
So gathered they were to Bree, what lieutenants who could be spared, from their scattered watches west and east, for their chieftain had returned from his long sojourn in lands godless and mountains strange.
Aragorn returns from the South to tells his tales. Halbarad listens.
Elrond Week 2024
Elrond Week is a fandom event dedicated to Elrond Peredhel that will run from July 10th to July 16th on Tumblr.
July challenge at tolkienshortfanworks posted
The tolkienshortfanworks challenge for July has been posted to the Dreamwidth community. The thematic challenge is: original character or unnamed canon character; the formal challenge: fixed length of multiple of 50 words. New participants welcome.
Teitho June/July Challenge: Mentor
The June/July prompt for the Teitho challenge is "mentor" and invites fanworks about this relationship in Tolkien's works.
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Comments
The Silmarillion Writers' Guild is more than just an archive--we are a community! If you enjoy a fanwork or enjoy a creator's work, please consider letting them know in a comment.
This was beautiful, Elleth! I had never thought of the possibility of Nerdanel and Celebrian meeting or how that might unfold, or even of their shared history. Details that I love: Celebrian's slowly giving away Elrond's library. The lineage of Elrond's traits, via Maglor and visible in Nerdanel. Celebrian's ability to still take the tone that "would have brooked no more discussion or objection."
(Also, I wish that book existed! And why am I thinking it would be a good idea to collect such stories and make one ...? :D)
Thank you so much, Dawn! I agree this is not such a common character constellation, but incidentally Indy herself wrote them together in her fic "Strength" as well (I think that may have subconsciously inspired me when I was trawling her fic to check something I wanted to write into the story), a wonderful and very different take than this. I'm glad you're enjoying this one, though, and that so many details stand out to you. :)
(You and me both! I've actually been thinking that might be a project to tackle at some point, though knowing my writing habits it would probably run away with me, and I'd be stuck following Maglor's footsteps for 6,000 years. :D)
You convinced me of family ties here, Elleth, of Nerdanel's connection to Celebrían as family, however tenuous in bloodlines that may be, but strong in heart. I love how Celebrían sees Elrond in Nerdanel, and how that speaks to Elrond's association with Maglor. I love to clear nod to Indy's RAFA-verse — or at least that is what I am seeing. Of course, I'm intrigued by the tales gathered by the Wandering Companies and transcribed by Elrond.
Thank you so much, Pandë! The found family aspect was something that appealed to me very much, so I'm glad that that connection felt real to you, and you are definitely not imagining the RAFA nod (in my own version it'd be Maedhros after his release from Mandos who brings Maglor home).
And there may yet be a glimpse at those stories, though I don't want to reveal too much yet! ;)
I love stories about Celebrian after she goes to Aman, I'm so glad you wrote this! I especially love her friendship with Nerdanel, which was really well done.
The book Elrond compiled about possible Maglor sightings was really touching, both in that he put it together and in that he sent a copy with Celebrian. And, of course, the fact that Celebrian gives it to Nerdanel. There are so many partings and deaths in the Silmarillion, so it's nice to see reunions or hints of them.
One thing you mentioned that I hadn't thought of was Celebrian meetings Celeborn's family reborn in Aman...every other story I've seen has her staying with her mother's family or with Elrond's. That was an insightful addition!
Thank you for taking the time to write up such a lovely review; I'm very glad you enjoyed the story. It was very interesting to work in this framework (especially with Celebrían's recent past) and still try and turn it a positive way, especially with two characters I love as much as these two.
And I'm glad you found the addition of Celeborn's family interesting. He gets so frequently overshadowed by his wife (and the Sindar by the Amanyar), and there is not much about his family (hence only the oblique mention), but we know they did exist, and Celebrían has more Telerin (that is, the Teleri as the entire Third Clan, making up various Sindar, Nandor and Amanyar Teleri) blood than Vanyarin or Noldorin, and I think she deserves to know both parts of that heritage - exploring that is one of the points on my long, long to-write list, but it will eventually happen. :)
Thank you so much! I enjoyed writing them very much (female friendships make me just as happy as femslash does, really), and considering that these two never interacted in canon, I'm happy you think the shape this took was plausible and palpable. :)
Comments
The Silmarillion Writers' Guild is more than just an archive--we are a community! If you enjoy a fanwork or enjoy a creator's work, please consider letting them know in a comment.